At the present time there is a large variety of different types of connectors for joining the individual wires in a first cable with the individual wires in a second cable. Most of these connectors are satisfactory for the applications they are designed for. However, many of them have limitations which reduce their usefulness and prevent or severely restrict their use on other applications.
One problem which has frequently been encountered is the mating of the two sections of the connector. The mating operation has frequently required a considerable amount of manual manipulation such as screwing the parts together. Such manual manipulation is both time consuming and difficult particularly when the connector is located in an inaccessible location which is difficult to reach. Moreover, in many of the prior connectors the force and loads on various parts of the connector have been extremely high. This has been particularly true where there is a large number of contacts which must be forced together during mating. As a result of these high loads and forces, some parts of the connector sections such as the locking mechanisms have failed prematurely.
Another problem which has frequently been encountered is maintaining the connector sections and particularly the electrical contacts therein in a fully mated condition. This is an especially common problem when the connector is used in an environment where substantial amounts of vibration, etc, are present.